Featured Articles

Chester board OKs rural zoning changes; talks 2025 budget, water meter upgrades

By Shawn Cunningham © 2025 Telegraph Publishing LLC An amendment to Chester’s rural zoning regulations that’s been under consideration since July, with several hearings where it was criticized by residents and Select Board members alike, was finally adopted after  one of its most controversial proposals was dropped. The 4 to 1 vote approving the at […]

One select board meeting, 3 contentious issues and a glitch

By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Chester Select Board had its hands full at its Wednesday, Dec. 18 meeting as it again took on controversial changes to rural zoning but put off a vote, handed down a determination in a long-standing Class 4 roads dispute and learned that sometimes delaying a decision […]

GM board discusses budgets, bonds and mascots

By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC The Green Mountain Unified School District Board continued last Thursday night discussing the 2025/26 budget with Superintendent Layne Millington and Business Manager Cheryl Hammond. The meeting was held in the Green Mountain High School Library. Millington outlined a number of actions that may be taken by the […]

Flurry of customers brings success to Chester’s first ‘Starry, Starry Night’ event

©2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC It was a frigid Saturday evening — one that made holding a camera near impossible. But it was brightened by lights adorning trees, the gazebo and many of the shops on the Green in Chester. And that bone-freezing cold quickly dissipated from the warm and welcoming atmosphere inside the shops, which […]

Future of Ed panel wrestles over report to legislature

By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC We can only improve the lives of kids and taxpayers if we are all rowing in the same direction,” said Emilie Kornheiser, who chairs the Commission on the Future of Education’s finance subcommittee, at its Dec. 9 meeting. The topic was what form the upcoming report to […]

Chester building owner seeks driveway permit to stop neighbor ‘harassment’

By Shawn Cunningham © 2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC It’s unusual for a permit to put in a driveway to find its way to a select board for a decision, but in the case of 116 Main St. in Chester the situation itself is unusual. Also known as the Henry Office Building, the 1880s structure at […]

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  • GMUSD board meeting agenda for Jan. 13

    GMUSD board meeting agenda for Jan. 13

    The Board of Directors of the Green Mountain Unified School District will hold a special meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 13 in the Green Mountain High School Library/Media Center, 716 Route 103 South and via Zoom. To access via Zoom, click here. I. CALL TO ORDER: A. Roll call II. APPROVAL […]

  • Chester Townscape honors Barbara Westine with memorial bench

    Chester Townscape honors Barbara Westine with memorial bench

    Hundreds of people in Chester remember the remarkable Barbara Westine, whose enthusiasm, energy and positive spirit encouraged and supported so many worthwhile causes. Westine, who died in April of 2024, was one of the founding members of Chester Townscape and provided dedicated personal and professional support. Chester Townscape sought to create a lasting memorial to […]

  • Column: Music on a frigid night warms the soul

    Column: Music on a frigid night warms the soul

    By Luna Burkland ©2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC On this freezing Sunday night, just three days before Christmas, tucked away in the Peru Congregational Church, concert-goers young and old experienced the joyful sounds of Ida Mae Specker, Emily Burkland, Faith Wood and Mowgli Giannitti. The four, informally known as Ida Mae and Friends when they perform […]

  • Springfield meets the challenge, gets a new bench

    Springfield meets the challenge, gets a new bench

    As a reward for Springfield residents collecting 1,000 pounds of thin film plastics,  the Trex Co. based in Virginia provided the Springfield Rotary Club with its ninth outdoor bench, which has been placed at the Green on Main at 77 Main St. The Rotary Club entered the Trex Thin Film Plastics Challenge in February of […]

  • To the editor: Vermont education funding needs repair

    To the editor: Vermont education funding needs repair

    As a parent of two children attending Compass School, an independent school in Westminster, I am writing to share my story with the hope of raising awareness, advocating for systemic change, and securing funding for children from low-income families. I firmly believe that every child should have access to funding that follows them to the […]

  • Op-ed: It’s time to move Chester’s revised zoning bylaws forward

    Op-ed: It’s time to move Chester’s revised zoning bylaws forward

    By Tim Roper The Chester Select Board finds itself in an unfortunate state of disagreement with regard to moving the work of our Planning Commission forward. During the Sept. 18 and Oct. 16 public hearing to adopt proposed changes to the zoning bylaws, the Select Board heard objections from a few households regarding implementing a […]

  • Win-Win invites those concerned about climate change

    Win-Win invites those concerned about climate change

    If you are 60 years of age or older, a citizen of Windham or Windsor counties and are concerned about climate change, consider joining Win-Win at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 30, at the Rockingham Public Library, 65 Westminster St. in Bellows Falls. Win-Win is the Third Act Vermont regional group that meets every other […]

  • College News

    College News

    Abbigale Williams of Andover was named to the Dean’s List at Elmira College, in Elmira, N.Y., for the fall 2024 term. Full-time undergraduate students registered for at least 12 computable credit hours and earning a term grade point average of 3.6 or higher at the end of Term I or Term II are placed on […]

  • Christmas comes early to Kurn Hattin, thanks to Springfield Rotary

    Christmas comes early to Kurn Hattin, thanks to Springfield Rotary

    Springfield Rotary Club brought Christmas to the 39 kids at Kurn Hattin Home for Children in Westminster on Thursday, Dec. 12. For more than two decades, Rotary has taken up a collection and bought individual gifts for Kurn Hattin children. Often, these are the only Christmas presents that they receive. After distribution of the gifts, […]

  • SAPA TV hosts 24 hours of kitschy Christmas movies, shorts and classic cartoons

    SAPA TV hosts 24 hours of kitschy Christmas movies, shorts and classic cartoons

    Once again, SAPA TV, the Springfield area’s public access TV station, will run 24 hours of Christmas movies and short subjects from 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve to 7 p.m. on Christmas Day. Viewers in Springfield, Weathersfield and Chester, as well as in Charlestown, N.H., can spend the day with 1964’s Santa Claus Conquers the […]

  • Grace Cottage earns 4-star rating, named to National Rural Honor Roll

    Grace Cottage earns 4-star rating, named to National Rural Honor Roll

    Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital, located in Townshend, has been awarded a prestigious 4-star rating by the National Rural Rating System, a program through the National Rural Health Association that recognizes excellence in rural healthcare, and includes listing on the 2025 National Rural Honor Roll. The National Rural Honor Roll was created to recognize […]

  • A busy holiday weekend? There's still more ...

    A busy holiday weekend? There’s still more …

    ©2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC This past Saturday, Dec. 14, was one of the busiest on the local Christmas calendar, filled with events for young and not-so-young alike. Here are a few things that happened: Both the Chester and Grafton fire departments continued their Christmas tree sales fund-raisers. Chester’s benefits its fire department while Grafton uses […]

  • Local knitters create winter caps for Westminster Head Start kids

    Local knitters create winter caps for Westminster Head Start kids

    ©2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC Carley Marston of Bellows Falls, pictured above standing on the porch of Six Loose Ladies in Chester, holds just a few of the 60 knitted hats and mittens for children at the Early Education Services Westminster Head Start Program. Since October, the community of knitters who frequent both Six Loose Ladies […]

  • Help 'Brighten Downtown' Springfield for the holidays

    Help ‘Brighten Downtown’ Springfield for the holidays

    Each year, the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce orchestrates the illumination of downtown Springfield. Lampposts, Santa’s house and the community holiday tree are all infused with a festive glow that fosters a sense of warmth and unity throughout the winter months. This cherished tradition transforms the townscape into a welcoming spectacle, as well as provides […]

  • ESBR holding end-of-year fundraising campaign

    ESBR holding end-of-year fundraising campaign

    Although Giving Tuesday is traditionally the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, the Expeditionary School at Black River announces that, for the third consecutive year, several generous donors have come forward to offer a Matching Funding Challenge totaling $10,400. As such, the school has extended its fundraising campaign through the end of 2024 to maximize the possibility of […]

  • Kate Lorenz Memorial Fund donates to four Vermont organizations

    Kate Lorenz Memorial Fund donates to four Vermont organizations

    The Kate Lorenz Memorial Community Fund announces nine awards/gifts for 2024. This year as in the past, the fund has donated $5,000 in gifts to organizations that represent Kate’s interests and passions. Four organizations are in Vermont; five are in Massachusetts. The Kate Lorenz Memorial Community Fund, supports the causes and ideas Lorenz held dear: […]

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